Is the Senate really working?

The Senate has a reputation as a graveyard — a place where bills go to slowly die after constant filibuster threats, endless quorum calls and petty procedural disputes.

But in just a few short months, the Senate has methodically begun to pass major legislation by whopping bipartisan majorities, including the sweeping immigration bill on Thursday. It’s a development that has stunned veterans of the institution, intensified tensions with a GOP-led House and undermined critics who say the chamber needs major reform.

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But interviews with the same senators who participated in one of the most unproductive Congresses in U.S. history last session — the same lawmakers who have been roundly reviled by voters — reveal that they are simply fed up with their own procrastination and the gridlock it produced. With the midterm elections 16 months away, senators are exploiting a brief window to dust off bills that have stalled for years. And Republican senators say they’re willing to risk the wrath of House Republicans to cut deals and compromise with Democrats in the Senate — at least for the time being.

“This is a small but significant step in repairing the damage we’ve created in the United States, by finding a pathway forward on a controversial tough issue like immigration,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the architects of the immigration bill. “I think one of the storylines of this bill beyond the substance of the bill is there is some hope that the Senate may be able to function again.”

The upshot of such unusual camaraderie is that for a short time at least, the Senate is working — in big and significant ways.

The Senate’s 68-32 vote to approve the most controversial rewrite of immigration laws in 27 years came only hours after the chamber confirmed President Barack Obama’s nominee for transportation secretary by a rare 100-0 vote. A couple weeks earlier, the Senate passed, 66-27, a five-year farm bill; in May, a water projects bill was approved by an 83-14 tally; and just before that, the chamber blessed an online sales tax bill in a 69-27 bipartisan vote.

As the immigration bill was barreling forward this week, Senate Democratic leaders were at odds with a bipartisan group crafting a deal to prevent student loan rates from doubling. The fiscal problems are bound to return this fall. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is still threatening to use the so-called “nuclear option” to change Senate filibuster rules to confirm a handful of stalled Obama nominees this summer, a threat already prompting angry GOP protests.

“We always thought that the Senate was the place where all legislation went to die, [but] the substance of the legislation coming out of here is not something most [of] the House Republicans are supportive of,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), No. 3 in Senate leadership.

Indeed, the GOP-led House is balking at the Senate’s newfound bipartisanship — particularly the immigration overhaul. Tensions between Republicans in the two chambers have only intensified, as GOP senators have strayed from conservative ideology to cut deals, pressuring conservatives in the House to act.

“They need to learn the same lesson that we need to learn over here: Just because they’ve got a few Republicans, that doesn’t make it a bipartisan bill,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), an ally of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Added Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.): “I’m not going to sit here and list the hundreds of bills the House has passed and never received a vote in the Senate.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) acknowledged the tension but said senators would be more successful in persuading the House to act on immigration by urging their common allies in the business and religious communities to pressure the House GOP.